Stellaris Beautification Mods

Updated 10th August 2017

Stellaris is a beautiful game in its own right, but with a budget and a finite amount of time to juggle in development, resources naturally need to be diverted and prioritised. There is always more that can be done to improve game aesthetics, and the mod list here proves that.

These mods mostly affect only game appearance, although in some cases affect gameplay too (in which case that will be pointed out in the mod description here).

This list specifically excludes addition of new portraits, ship types, city sets and such because I’ve already covered that in plenty of detail. Instead, I aim to address improvements to the appearance of the galaxy, celestial objects, and some battle effects.

Some of these mods affect the same graphics assets and as such aren’t directly compatible, although often will just overwrite one another (and therefore the behaviour isn’t necessarily deterministic). If there are known or anticipated compatibility issues between these mods, I’ll list them in the relevant descriptions. Conversely, some of these mods are explicitly compatible or compatible with patches, in which case this will also be pointed out in the relevant descriptions.

Clean Space

This removes lines, text, and other visual guides from system views and the galactic view. For maximum cinematic appeal, this mod is a must! (Although you might be surprised how much you rely on these visual cues.)

Downscaled Ships

Downscaled Ships scales ships and habitats so they’re more realistically scaled relative to each other (so that capital ships feel really big) and generally smaller (to avoid clipping in large fleets or allied engagements).

There are a number of compatibility patches if you use this mod with any other mods that affect ships, such as new ship sets, New Ship Classes, or Improved Space Battles (but only the [Balance] version of this mod – not required for the ISBS [Graphics] mod on this page). Some more patches are linked on the Downscaled Ships Workshop description, others still are linked on the other mods’ pages.

This mod pairs very well with Real Space, which alters the scale of the stellar systems themselves.

Immersive Galaxy – Planet Variety

Immersive Galaxy adds a massive 256 new textures to the worlds in Stellaris. The linked base mod adds the cloud textures (which are awesome), and you then need to choose to subscribe to one or more add-ons for the actual planetary textures. For the complete experience, you should subscribe to these two:

ISBS – Living Systems

This is a really interesting mod that adds some background civilian activity to your empire, with activity increasing as your systems flourish. This means there will be autonomous vessels crossing the galaxy, going about their business.

This reminds me a bit of the civilian portion of Distant Worlds – Universe, although the civilians in this mod notably don’t have any function besides looking nice.

It’s highly recommended that you use this mod with Improved Space Battles [Graphics] to minimise visual clutter. There are options available in the policies menu to reduce the civilian density if you want to tune your game performance.

Real Space

Real Space adds a touch of graphical diversity to the star systems in Stellaris, with more types of star, multiple star systems (binary, ternary, and more – oh my!), plus more planet skins. It also reduces the size of some celestial objects for a greater sense of realism.

ZBeautiful Battles (+YBeautiful Battles)

ZBeautiful Battles alters the flow and spacing of fleet battles. This should make fleets appear to utilise more depth in space, improve battle clarity, reduce ship clipping, and generally make battles more pleasant to experience. As such, this does affect gameplay slightly.

If your not averse to changing game balance, consider also installing YBeautiful Battles, which changes gameplay to a greater extent (with the goal of further improving battle visuals).

Connect with Odin Gaming

OdinGaming.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.fr, and amazon.de.

Odin Gaming uses cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we'll assume that you're happy with it.OkRead Odin Gaming's Cookie Policy.